Quasi-Contracts — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. A quasi-contract is best described as:

   • A contract formed through implied acceptance
   • A law-imposed, contract-like obligation with no real agreement (correct answer)
   • A voidable contract
   • A contract requiring registration

   Explanation. A quasi-contract is a legal fiction — there is no real offer, acceptance, or consensus; the law simply imposes contract-like obligations.

2. The underlying principle behind Sections 68–72 is:

   • Freedom of contract
   • Unjust enrichment (correct answer)
   • Doctrine of privity
   • Caveat emptor

   Explanation. The principle nemo debet locupletari ex aliena jactura — no one should grow rich at another's expense — underlies this entire chapter.

3. In Moses v. Macferlan, Lord Mansfield held that where the defendant is obliged by natural justice and equity to refund money, the law implies:

   • A debt, and gives an action to recover the money (correct answer)
   • A criminal liability for withholding money
   • A right to sue in tort only
   • No remedy at all without a written contract

   Explanation. Lord Mansfield held that the law implies a debt and treats the obligation as arising as if by contract, although no real agreement to repay exists.

4. Under Section 68, necessaries supplied to a person incapable of contracting are recoverable:

   • Personally from that person
   • Only from that person's property (correct answer)
   • From the government
   • They cannot be recovered at all

   Explanation. Section 68 allows reimbursement only from the incapable person's own property, not a personal claim against them.

5. Under Section 69, a person is entitled to reimbursement for paying money that another was legally bound to pay, provided:

   • He is a close relative of the debtor
   • He had a genuine interest in the payment (correct answer)
   • He paid voluntarily with no stake in the matter
   • He is a government official

   Explanation. Section 69 requires the payer to have a genuine interest in the payment, as illustrated by B protecting his own lease by paying A's revenue dues.

6. Which of the following is an example of a quasi-contractual obligation?

   • A signed sale deed for a house
   • A finder of goods being treated as a bailee (Section 71) (correct answer)
   • An oral agreement to sell a car
   • A registered partnership deed

   Explanation. Section 71's finder-of-goods rule is a specific example of the same unjust-enrichment principle applied to found property.